Spell Points and how they change D&D

[genshou]

The trick with spell points is to use a method similar to the augmentation of psionic powers. Yeah, magic missile is a 1st-level spell. It would be overpowered in a spell-point system that always charged 1 point for it, but let the number of missiles keep increasing with your caster level. So the trick would be, spells are always cast at their base power level unless you pay extra points to increase their effectiveness. Spend 1 point, get 1d4+1 points of magic missile damage. If you're 9th level, you can spend 9 points and get 5 missiles; it doesn't still cost just 1 point to get the better effect.

Similarly, a fireball is a 3rd level spell, and would cost 5 spell points. If you're 10th level and want it to do 10d6 damage, it costs 10 spell points. And so on. Basically, the caster level you get from an effect is equal to the spell points you spend on it, up to your caster level.

Then, you don't just sum up spells from the wizard spellcasting chart to give spell points. You instead say, wizards get spell points equal to (1 + their intelligence bonus) * their wizard level. You still get some low-end effects like invisible that are pretty cheap and good in a spell-point system, but it's not as bad.

The nice thing about Elements of Magic is that this is already a built-in feature. When you cast a stormbolt (one of the predesigned spells), it always deals 5d6 points of damage. If you want more, you have to spend more on the spell. That's a lot better.

The nice thing about using a spell point system with entirely new magic (such as Elements of Magic) is that it has more of the feel that a spell point game should. It's more like LoTR, or Earthsea (just finished watching that earlier tonight–very good 2-part miniseries).

I haven't been very impressed with UA after the overwhelming amount of praise I've heard from friends and seen on the boards, but the rules in there for the alternate magic system are definitely on par with Elements of Magic.

 

[genshou]

Hmmm...never heard of Elements of Magic but I just checked out the link and its blurb. Thanks. Its hard to get a good feel for what its offering though. Can you give me any details? How complicated is the process of casting? How much does it slow play? How similar is it to The Black Company magic system? It sounds pretty similar. Anything at all you can fill me in on concerning Elements of Magic?

Spellcasting is pretty easy to understand once you learn the basics.

There are eleven action types: Abjure/Hex, Charm, Compel, Create, Evoke, Heal, Illusion, Infuse/Drain, Move, Summon, and Transform. There are also four magical skills: Dispel Magic, Divination, Scry, and Spellcraft. Every spell falls under one or more categories based on its mechanical function. There are also effect types, which fall under one of three categories: Alignment, Creature, and Element. You combine an action type and an effect type to make a spell list, and spellcasters know a certain number of spell lists at any given level.

Once you've determined the spell lists you're using in your spell, you then add enhancements for a magic point cost. They can be either general (range, duration, area, etc.) or list-specific (force-change for Transform, hedging for Abjure, knockback for Evoke Wind, etc.)

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm noticing a lot of mentions of Elements of Magic in threads nowadays, which is quite pleasing to me, since I wrote it. I am still very proud of it, but I'll admit that in the year since it came out I've changed my design philosophy a bit. D&D is still balanced partially by the idea that there will be several encounters in a single day. You can't bring all your power to bear in every single fight, because stuff that comes later in the day will take you out.

Optimally, I'd prefer a system where each encounter is individually balanced, so if your plot requires the party fight several times in one day, they can handle it, and if they only are just doing scry-buff-teleport or otherwise are having just one encounter a day, that encounter will still be challenging. D20 Modern works more that way, but I can't write a magic system for D&D that is balanced on a per-encounter basis without having to rewrite the entire system. So for now, I'll keep the MP system in EOM, but the modern version of EOM I'm writing has other balancing factors, and does not use MP.

If you pick up EOM, let me know what you think.

 

[genshou]

I'm noticing a lot of mentions of Elements of Magic in threads nowadays, which is quite pleasing to me, since I wrote it.

Yep. Isn't it nice, from an ethics perspective, to have everyone else pimping your product on the forums for you? And why not? It's a good book! Now get back to work on Mythic Earth before I have to pull my E.N. Arsenal - Whips out to "motivate" you!

 

[RangerWickett]

Dude, the book is done, writing-wise at least. Just our layout guy is going to Gen Con, so he won't be starting until next week.

Now I need to figure out what to do next.